Defiant spirit spurs comeback
When Nepo Laulala snapped three ligaments in his knee and ripped his quadricep off the bone he was told to think about another career.
The horrific pre-season training incident with the Chiefs at the start of last year resulted in one of the worst injuries Laulala’s doctor had seen.
“My doc told me that he didn’t think I’d play again,” Laulala recalled.
At 25 he faced the prospect of a career ending just as it was getting under way. He had two test caps to his credit and a decent run at the Crusaders behind him; at least he would be able to sign out having made some kind of footprint.
But as much as Laulala could accept the injury was bad, horrific even, it wasn’t going to be career-ending. He wasn’t going to let a needless training collision be the story he would have to tell to generations of Laulalas to come.
“It was a massive injury and I think it was the worst he had ever seen — which is not really the thing you want to hear from your doctor,” says Laulala. “I wanted to prove that I could make it back and prove the doctor wrong. It played a really big role in me getting back. Part of our role is that we always get a lot of negativity It is part of our lives to prove people wrong in this career.”
That defiant spirit is a big part of what the All Blacks coaches have come to admire about Laulala this year. He’s a player who will find a way to deal with whatever is thrown at him and such resilience is a necessity for a man asked to anchor the All Blacks’ scrum.
The front-row is, as much as the modern game can be, a lawless state where nominally the referee has jurisdiction but practically it is a sort-itout-yourselves world. Laulala has proven himself to be admirably resourceful when it comes to scrummaging and much of the tenacity he has shown can be traced back to his ordeal in overcoming his injury.
The road to recovery was long and arduous for Laulala. It’s not easy rebuilding a knee to the point where it can deal with the stresses of being a test tighthead prop.
And the challenge to recover his career wasn’t purely physical. The more demanding part was adjusting mentally. He came to see that he needed to simplify his thinking, cherish the opportunity he had, be strong enough to be himself and above all else be grateful.
Gratitude is a virtue that binds the best athletes and by finding it, Laulala has been able not only to wind back his career, but return to the All Blacks for whom he briefly played in 2015 as a genuine long-term prospect.
“I wasn’t really myself when I first came in,” he says. “I felt like I had to try to do too much and was trying to impress the coaches.
“It [injury] has helped me realise that I don’t need to over-do stuff. I just need to be myself . . .
“It was really tough as I never thought I’d get back here . . . It was humbling and it made me mature and I looked at it as restarting my career.”